28 March 2015

The Religious Right - Those Christians Who Understand Christianity Better Than Christ

"I have as much
authority as the pope, only fewer people believe it."

- George Carlin

83% of Americans claim
to be Christian. If you have a proposal you want supported, it is a great idea
to tell people that what you're advocating is Christian. Given that 83% of
Americans have not read the Bible, this gives you great liberty.

I don't mind the fact
that the religious right have made up a new religion. People do that all the
time - and inescapably so. Even if your intention is to conscientiously apply the
words of the New Testament, you have to make judgments about what to take
metaphorically and what to take literally. And of course conscientious
Christians - like conscientious Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists -
have to decide what to do in situations that Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and Buddha
could never have imagined (artificial insemination?), so creativity is inevitable. This is why
we have over 40,000 religious denominations around the world.

I do mind that the
religious right are Christians who essentially claim to understand Christianity
better than Christ did. They are ignoring what he taught and making topics he
ignored central to their religion. I think by that point you have an obligation
to call yourself something other than Christian.

Jesus did not condemn
homosexuality but he did condemn wealth. He did not condemn abortion but he did
say that people will be judged by how they treated the least - and specifies
that he's talking about the least as in people who are hungry, naked, and in
prison, criminals and the destitute. Jesus made no mention of either abortion
or homosexuality, leaving one to assume that it didn't really matter to him as
much as turning the other cheek. Jesus did not ban alcohol. His first miracle was to make water into wine, and late at the wedding party after people had drunk quite a lot.

Paul seems to have
condemned homosexuality (the verse cited is not really clear) and also
condemned credit (this verse is really clear). Early in the 20th century,
American clergy preached against consumer credit in the same way that they
preached against homosexuality in the late 20th century.

So now people advocate a
modern world with credit and standing armies and prison sentences for criminals
instead of forgiveness and divorce and making alcohol illegal for people under 21 and the accumulation of wealth and all of
that seems to me like progress. We ought to embrace that without pretending
that it aligns with Christ's teaching, though. If you argue for such things, you can't
just say, "It's Christian." You have to make your case (and by the
way, there are pretty good cases for these.)

Meanwhile, if you want
to claim that at the instant of conception that sperm and egg - human life that
is not considered a human being - becomes a person, fine. Make your argument.
But don't pretend that you are making it as a Christian, that something Christ
said backs you on this point. Same with smaller government and the insistence
that individuals not be supported by a welfare state. There are arguments for
ignoring the poor but they stem from the teachings of people like Ayn Rand (who
was an atheist) not Jesus. (There are religious
arguments for not having a welfare state. As it turns out, the less financially
secure people feel, the more likely they are to be religious. According to
Jonathon Haidt, this is the primary reason that Americans are more religious
than Europeans.)

I don't just have a problem with the religious right's insistence on bringing their religion into the public sphere. I have a problem with the fact that they've mis-labeled it as Christianity.